Wow! With such a great start to Indigenous Walks it was really hard to find the time to do another blog post but there’s so much coming up that I thought you should know about so, welcome to Blog #3.

First of all, I had a few great tours this time around. Thank-you to teacher Michael Bernards from Lester B. Pearson for bringing your students on an Indigenous Walk! I met Mr. Bernards during my time at the National Gallery of Canada during the amazing “Sakahàn – International Indigenous Art” exhibition. At that time, I told him about my dream to launch Indigenous Walks and voila! He became my first of paying customer! Thank-you so much for your support.

The next tour was with the National Arts Centre’s Theatre Section. A big thank you to Sara Stanley for bringing the Board of Directors on a SURPRISE board development activity! I’m really looking forward to seeing the upcoming shows by Indigenous People that the NAC is hosting.

Thanks for the photo Sara!

National Arts Centre Board members on an Indigenous Walks tour. Photo by Sara Stanley

Before I get into this amazing list of things to do in Ottawa, I want you to remember Indigenous Walks when booking your meetings, planning a group activity or a staff retreat. If there’s a group of 10 or more, I give better rates. Teachers might also want to start considering booking for the fall too.

If you’re visiting Ottawa and you’d like to participate in a public tour, be sure to check the schedule and send an email to sign up for a walk to: jaime@indigenouswalks.com

June 20 @ 11:30am-1:30pm: TD Bank Celebrates National Aboriginal Day with First Nations, Inuit and Métis performers including Jaime and the Jiglets at 1595 Telesat Ct. (James Naismith Dr.) Just so you know, last year, they had the best food there!

So that’s a list and a half for you! For those of you who didn’t get to make it to the Odawa Native Friendship Centre’s 38th Annual Pow Wow, I’ve posted a few photos that I took of the fabulous dancers over the weekend of May 23-25.

Men’s Traditional Dancer Gabriel Whiteduck

Men’s Traditional Dancer, Ian Akiwenzie

Men’s Traditional Dancers: (Charles Belisle & Gabriel Whiteduck)

Men’s Traditional Dancer, Craig Marvin

Men’s Traditional Dancer. Please send me the name of this dancer if you know to: jaime@indigenouswalks.com

Men’s Traditional Dancer Jason Whitebear

Jingle Dress Dancers Line Up for competition announcement Photo by Jaime Koebel

The launch of Indigenous Walks on the weekend of Jane’s Walks was a success! On Saturday’s Walk (May 3) there were 30 people who attended from start to finish. On Sunday, May 4 despite the rainy and cold weather, we started with 36 walkers and although a few dropped off part way through, there was still 24 walkers who bravely hung on until the end. We met at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights Monument just off Elgin/Lisgar where we acknowledged Turtle Island and Algonquin Territory. The tours lasted 2 hours and because of the range of knowledge amongst participants, I gave a general overview of the population of Indigenous Peoples within the Nation’s Capital and from there we talked about specific landmarks and current events.

I promised that I would indicate some of those events here on the website in case participants were interested in attending them. The first event that I talked about was an art exhibition called, “Anishinabe Woman” at Venus Envy by Chippewa artist Rebekah Elkerton. On opening night local Anishinaabe author, Vera Wabegejig gave some readings from her newly released book of poetry called Wild Rice Dreams and Plains Cree performer Giselle Gotti Chanel provided a fabulous drag show! To make the evening tasty, Wawatay Catering provided a wonderful mix of traditional and contemporary Algonquin foods including bannock and of course her famously fresh salsa. Elkerton’s show is up for the entire month of May. The next Indigenous exhibition at Venus Envy is on June 5th by an Ojibway artist called Sketches: Art by Mark Seabrook.

Another major supporter of Indigenous arts and literature in Ottawa is Octopus Books. On May 8 from 7:00pm – 9:00pm they will host a discussion with author Sam McKegney of Masculindians who will be joined by Anishinabe author Armand Garnet-Ruffo and he will be reading from his upcoming creative biography of Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird. A pleasant new addition to the evening is Anishinaabe author Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm who will open with her beautiful poetry.

Currently at the National Arts Centre, is a powerful and poignant one man show by Métis/Lakota playwright and actor Cliff Cardinal called, Huff. Cardinal’s ability to take on 16 characters in a one hour time span mirrors the intensity of the content within the show itself and provides a peephole’s view of life on a reserve soaked in destitution. Despite the heaviness of the subject matter, the fact that Cardinal is presenting this play at all is a testament to the resiliency of the fastest growing population in Canada. Here’s a short clip.

June 18 @ 8:00pm – Diggin Roots is a five piece band with Indigenous artists ShoShona Kish who is a beautiful mix of Ojibway Anishinabe, Irish and Hungarian and Raven Kanatakta who is Algonquin Anishnabe and Onkwehonwe. They will be presenting their Indie-music at the NAC’s fourth-stage.

Lastly, a huge thank-you to William Felepchuck, the Indigenous Walks Marshal and my three jiglets for helping me out with the tours this week. Thanks to MixedBagMag.com for the photos and social media feeds as well as John Jewitt for providing extra knowledge on Sunday’s tours about the Aboriginal War Veteran’s Monument.

Indigenous Walks is pleased to announce our very first walk in partnership with Jane’s Walks Ottawa! To participate in a FREE Indigenous Walks excursion during a weekend of getting to know Ottawa through walk and talks, visit Jane’s Walk Ottawa at http://janeswalk.herokuapp.com/walks/108

Jane’s Walk will be held in Ottawa and in cities around the world on the first weekend in May. There are many walks already scheduled, with more to come. Visit the schedule page for details on the walks for 2014.